Every year, Colin Jost and Michael Che offer up a delightful gift from the ‘Weekend Update’ desk: the Saturday Night Live stars agree to write jokes sight unseen for each other with the aim of hilariously humiliating the other on national television. (For example, most of Michael’s jokes for Colin cheekily highlight the latter’s privileged position as a wealthy white guy, and so on.) But last night’s edition of the co-anchors’ joke swap tradition got an added boost with a very special celebrity cameo.
Che immediately had a one-up on Jost by jokingly making the latter read all of his punchlines with a so-called “Black voice.” (“I’m so sorry in advance!” Colin cried.) And though Colin had some zingers of his own for Michael to recite, including a bit about Che being a regular at Diddy’s now infamous “freak off” parties (“We’re bad boy for life“), Jost got absolutely smoked when Che roped in the former’s A-lister wife, Scarlett Johansson.
“I want to dedicate this next joke to my boo, Scarlett Johansson,” Colin was forced to announce, with the camera cutting to Johansson waiting in the wings of Studio 8H. (The Oscar-nominated actress helped to induct host Martin Short into the Five-Timers Club in the cold open and stuck around for the rest of the episode.) Jost continued with the joke: “Y’all know Scarlett just celebrated her 40th birthday, which means I’m about to get up out of there. Shizzzz.” Cue a shocked reaction from ScarJo, which only intensified when Jost continued to read from the cue cards: “Nah, I’m just playing. We just had a kid together, and y’all ain’t seen no pictures of him yet, because he Black as hell!”
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But it was the segment’s final punchline that had our — and Johansson’s — jaw dropping. “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu, but I ain’t tripping,” Jost began. “I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid!” That prompted a big “Oh my god!” from Johansson backstage, including an expletive slipped out in shock. Jost finished: “I’m just playing, baby. You know I don’t go downtown.” It was one of the more brutally funny joke swaps between Jost and Che, and ScarJo handled it with good humor aplenty.
Related: Meet the Cast of ‘SNL’ Season 50
You can watch the ‘Weekend Update’ segment here:
